Photo of the Day Contest, “Turquoise Poise”, Gorgeous White-Throated Kingfisher With Prey

To participate and share your images,  please join Bush Warriors Photo of the Day Contest group on Facebook, which you can access by clicking here (http://www.facebook.com/groups/bushwarriorsphotooftheday/)

Turquoise Poise

Photo by Tarun Suhag

The White-throated Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis) also known as the White-breasted Kingfisher or Smyrna Kingfisher, is a tree kingfisher, widely distributed in Eurasia from Bulgaria,Turkey, east through South Asia to the Philippines.  White-throated Kingfishers as a group eat a wide range of food, but each bird may specialize in a particular prey.  They obviously like fish (particularly during the wet season), but other prey make up the bulk of their diet.  While hunting along the water, they prey on crabs, amphibians (frogs) and reptiles (skinks, lizards). On land, they hunt large insects and arthropods (grasshoppers, beetles, termites, scorpions, centipedes). They beat these against their perch to kill and remove venomous stings. They even take small mammals (rats, mice, voles), snakes up to 65cm long, and nestling birds.   They basically eat any prey small enough for them to take.  White-throated Kingfishers dive to catch aquatic prey; in shallow water, they enter feet first, in deeper waters, head first.  They dive similarly into grass and vegetation to catch terrestrial prey.  They can hover over their target area for a short while before plunging in.  Their hunts appear to be more successful in wetlands than on dry land.  The White-throated Kingfisher hunts alone, but where hunting is good, they may perch as close as 100 m apart without showing much hostility.

 

To share your wildlife photos with the Bush Warriors community, go to our Photo of the Day Contest Facebook page and upload your shots today!  All you need to do is upload them onto the wall.  Please do not create new albums, but rather upload each photo on its own.  Click here to view ALL of our Photo of the Day winners and for more information on the Bush Warriors Photo of the Day Contest.  Enjoy the beauty of nature, just as it was intended to be! 

 

The Bush Warriors Photo of The Day Contest is brought to you in partnership with Creative Visions Foundation.  Inspired by the life of Dan Eldon, a young Reuters photojournalist killed in Somalia in 1993, Creative Visions Foundation supports “Creative Activists” who use media and the arts to create positive change in the world.

Vote for your favorite photo each week.  The Bush Warriors Photo of The Week winner will go on to compete for the Bush Warriors Photo of the Monthand a chance to win a signed copy of Dan Eldon: Safari As a Way of Life of life.  

 

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